Chloe's Past: Metahuman & Dying
by Ace-Of-Spades-2014
Summary: Oliver finds about that Chloe used to have a meta-human ability to save people from the brink of death.


Oliver opened his eyes, exhausted and confused, caught off guard by the fact there was no pain. He could clearly remember such crazy ninja chick coming out of nowhere, striking him with sword through the gut, and leaving him for dead in his empty hallway, just a mere foot away from his and Chloe's loft.

He remembered calling out for Chloe, who should have been working on Justice League stuff inside, praying that his beautiful wife would know what to do to save him. Or, at the very least, that she was there with him.

There wasn't enough time to chide himself on his lack of awareness and honestly, he'd been in too much agony to care that someone had gotten the best of him in one of his rare moments of vulnerability. All that mattered was that he didn't die alone just a foot away from home.

Before he had fallen into a state of unconsciousness due to the lack of blood, Chloe's sweet face had appeared before him, her green eyes darkened with worry. "Oliver," tears had been streaming down her face as she reached out to him.

"Chloe," he was suddenly springing to his feet at the thought of her.

Vaguely, he was aware of how odd it was that he was actually still in the hallway rather than in a bed or a hospital, or more likely a lab with Emil hovering over him. As perfectly healthy as he felt, he would have figured that Chloe had indeed found a way to get him somewhere safe and healed.

"Chloe," his voice was more strained now, for his eyes found her lying upon the floor close to where he had fallen...looking as if the life had been drained out of her. He knelt beside her to feel for a pulse. Terror seized him when he couldn't find one.

Running on instinct, he called Impulse so she could be rushed to the hospital. There had to be something that could save her. She couldn't be dead. It couldn't be possible.

Meanwhile, his mind was overwhelmed to the extent that he couldn't form a single coherent thought. Nothing made sense.

"What happened?" The speedster arrived immediately. He too fell to his knees at Chloe's side, frantically searching for a pulse.

Oliver shook his head numbly. His eyes stung with yet to be shed tears. "Just take her to the hospital."

Impulse frowned deeply, and looked up at Oliver, seeming to also survey the area around them. "Were you hurt." Eyes looked the civilianized Green Arrow up and down, unable to find any sign of injury.

"It doesn't matter! Save her." He couldn't allow the thought that it was already too late for her to be saved, and he was guilty to feel not only fury but hatred at the person who was now hindering Chloe from getting adequate help.

Bart began to straighten. His frown disappeared, but his expression was still deadly serious. "Oliver, it's okay. She'll be okay." Oliver wanted to believe it, but Chloe was still lying on the floor, not moving, and he needed to do something. "This had happened before. It's part of her metahuman abilities." Impulse spoke fast, not allowing any space to be interrupted. "She can heal people close to death, but the consequence is that she dies for a few hours. I guess depending how close the other person was close to death."

There was nothing in Impulse's tone or demeanor to suggest that he was ignorant of what he spoke of now, but that fact did very little to calm Oliver. His mind was still simultaneously numb and frantic, fretful and confused.

At the news, however, he did attempt to calm down physically. Enough to state, "I didn't know she was a metahuman." His eyes fell to her form again, and something painful stabbed him in his chest. If it were true, Oliver couldn't help but think, then Chloe would have told him about it. If not in casual conversation, then in one of the numerous times that they had traded information with one another.

"Oliver," Impulse was talking softly but urgently, "I promise. She'll be okay. Just take her inside and put her in bed. She'll wake up and she'll be perfectly fine."

Though it took all his control to not demand something be done for her, Oliver bent down to pick Chloe up, frowning as he did so.

Once she was place gently on the bed, Oliver took a moment to stare at her unmoving form. In her state of stasis, she was peaceful and he could feel it in his gut and in his heart that she would come back to him. Impulse knew what he was talking about, Oliver convinced himself, accepting it with more fevor than he had in the hallway. With this new sense of comfort, the resentment and bitterness began to settle in.

He returned to the speedster who was waiting in the large living room. "What happened?" The young man asked when Oliver before questions of his own could be asked.

Though irritated, Oliver obliged in giving Bart an answer. When he finished, the only surprise that generated from the other was the news of the ninja woman who had struck him, and Impulse promised to get the team on that while Chloe was recuperating.

Impulse's complete understanding of Chloe's apparent meta-humanness only served to make Oliver more bitter. Naturally (for Oliver anyways) that bitterness morphed into something akin to anger. "And exactly how are you so knowledgeable about Chloe's abilities?" His tone was harsh, but Impulse took it in stride.

"I saw it in one of Lex's files when we were going after him for factory 33.1. I asked Clark about it."

Oliver scowled. "I never saw a file on that."

Impulse shrugged. "Chloe must have erased it once she realized Lex had it. Or at least hid it from the rest of the team." After all, once she had joined their band of misfits, she had been the one in charge of the documents and digital information they got ahold of while the rest were out in the field.

Suddenly, Oliver was struck with an epiphany. "That's why Lex kidnapped her," he practically growled. "I thought she had just been too much of a nuisance for him."

That had been years ago, long before Chloe had even thought that Chloe could mean anything more to him than just a valuable team member. Yet even then, he had trusted her more than anyone else. She, however, had obviously not felt the same. If the remaining secrecy was to go by, apparently she still didn't trust him completely. Not enough to tell him that she was a metahuman and could bring people back from the dead.

Impulse recognized the thoughts that were running through his mind, and he was quick to reassure. "I don't think she told anyone Oliver. Like I said, I only knew about it because of the file." And because of Clark, Oliver thought resentfully.

Anyways, it didn't matter who else she had told or didn't tell. He was her soulmate. She should have told him, if no one else. It was just worse off that she hadn't just kept it to herself; she had confided in someone. Like everything else in her life, she had told Clark.

There was a saddened expression in Impulse's eyes, but had matured enough over the years to understand when something wasn't his business. He also knew Oliver well enough to understand when the man needed space. "You'll call me when she wakes up."

"Of course," Oliver responded more tersely than Bart deserved.

Alone, he waited. Periodically, he'd go into the bedroom to check on Chloe who still slept like the dead. The sight was nerve wracking, but he did well to convince himself she indeed wake up from this too deep of a slumber.

A part of him thought about calling Clark just to be comforted with the knowledge that someone else had seen her "die" in such a manner and awakened before long, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to pick up the phone. At least not to call Clark.

After five hours had passed, he did call Impulse back, asking if he knew how long this usually lasted. There was a pause (unusual for the fast talker) before the response came. "Clark said it could be an entire day. You just have to wait it out. I know it's hard, but she'll be okay." Oliver wasn't so sure about that. If he had to wait an entire day to speak to Chloe, to be left alone with his darkening thoughts, he wasn't too sure that she would be okay.

Sure enough, when afternoon rolled around the next day and Chloe walked cautiously into the living room, Oliver was furious. Rather than embrace her as he should have, he couldn't keep in the frustration. "What the hell was that?"

Her green eyes were wide as she stared at him, surprised at his outburst. He couldn't blame her. He hadn't lost his temper with her since she had been skimming money from his company for kryptonite, but even then he had kept a level tone.

"You were dying," though he couldn't see tears in her eyes, he heard them in her voice. "Someone attacked you right out. I...I hadn't even heard anything until you called out to me. I…"

At this point he had to reach out to her as a way of comfort. It didn't matter how mad he was at her, he needed to comfort her. Once she had calmed, however, he also needed to get his piece said and done with. "I mean, what the hell with you? Thank you for saving me Chloe, but how come I hadn't even been aware that you save people like that? Why did you never tell me you were a metahuman?"

"I didn't know I could still do that," was her soft reply. "I thought I lost it when Brainiac corrupted me."

He could hear the depressed honesty in her statement, but it only did so much to lighten his mood. Gently, he guided her to the couch before continuing.

Distnalty, he remembered that time he and Clark had stormed Lex's facilities to save her. She had gotten away, but in the process Oliver had been mind controlled and Clark had almost died. Through his overwhelming guilt, he had seen her cry over Clark's body, talking to herself about saving him. At the time he had thought she was hysterical with grief, but he was realizing now that she had truly believed that she could have saved him. Back then, though, she hadn't been able to do anything, and it was Jones who had come to the rescue.

"But you knew it was a possibility to do it again, because you tried it with me."

It wasn't an accusation. He was grateful that she had saved him, no matter how it had been done. If she had been the one dying, he would have done everything in his power to do the same.

What he had trouble accepting was that he had once again been left in the dark because his wife hadn't had the decency to tell him about such an important part of her life. It hardly mattered that she had thought she wasn't a metahuman anymore. She had been at one point, and it was such a major element as to who she was and who she had been, that it should have at least made one appearance in her stories.

He took a deep breath. "All the times we traded secrets and information, and you never thought to tell me that you once had the ability to heal people - to bring them back from the brink of death? I was terrified, Chloe, until Bart of all people had to tell me that this had happened before."

"Bart knew?" He gave her a pointed state. "Right. Not the point."

For a moment she was quiet, biting her lower lip and her eyes lowered. Any other time he may have waited her out, but not this time. "You'll tell me now," he gave the quiet order. "How did it begin?"

"A couple of years ago I found out that my heart had been infected with kryptonite. I was terrified. I didn't want to be a metahuman. At that time, everyone we knew that had been affected had turned out evil, and I thought I was a ticking time bomb." She started to explain in a low voice. "But then it actually manifested."

She paused again, but Oliver wouldn't allow her the time. He couldn't let her convince herself out of the explanation. "Who was the first person you saved?"

"Lois," came the unexpected answer. "She had been shot while on one of her crazy assignments, and she had called me as she was losing blood. When I arrived, she had already lost too much, but then I touched her and she was suddenly healed."

"And then?" Oliver had finally lost the bitter tone, changing it to be more curious, but inwardly he was still slightly resentful that she hadn't told him all this before.

"Ambulance took us to the hospital. They released Lois when they couldn't find anything wrong, and they put me in the morgue. I wasn't awake at the time, of course, but Clark told me that they had announced me dead at arrival and so they had me in one of those cold storage cabinets."

All at once any lingering residue of bitterness was gone. "You were in the morgue?"

As if it were just a casual fact, Chloe shrugged. "I wasn't breathing. My heart wasn't beating."

"You woke up in a morgue."

He couldn't imagine the trauma that she must have endured, and that she must have kept to herself all these years. Especially since he had learned about her being buried alive. How much damage had she suffered after all this time from repeatedly waking up in places meant for the dead? Yet here she was, hiding her terror away, locking the memory behind a steel door.

"Clark found me quickly once I woke up," she commented as if it made things better, but Oliver knew it didn't. "I saved Clark too, one time," she was quick to side-step when she caught Oliver's expression. "Lex's mind would have killed him if it hadn't been for me."

Her green eyes lifted to stared straight into his gaze. He found sincerity in them, along with a deep sadness.

"You have to understand Oliver that I didn't talk about, not because I didn't trust you (because I do; more than anyone), but because the topic was too hard for me. Even though I was terrified of being a metahuman in the beginning, when I lost my ability, there was nothing I wanted more than to get it back. It...it made me depressed to think that about having lost my powers of saving people." Unshed tears were forming in her eyes, making them glassy and pure emerald.

Oliver could see why her powers had meant so much to her. He could understand why she had a hard time dwelling having lost them. It wasn't that she had been able to save someone (because as Watch Tower, she had saved plenty); it was that she had been able to save those who had meant everything to her. If not for her ability back then, she would have lost both her cousin and her best friend.

"I didn't want to think about the fact that I was useless again. Only good enough to be a sidekick, and a lame one at that."

He frowned. "Chloe, you could never _just_ be a sidekick. You were _never_ just a sidekick. You may not be out in the field like we are, but you have always been the one to save those who save others. If it weren't for you, even without your metahuman ability, Clark wouldn't be Superman right now. The Justice League wouldn't have ever gotten through our fallout, and it certainly wouldn't have expanded to the extent it is now. You, Chloe, are a hero. Not a sidekick. Always."

She gave a small smile at his speech. "Thank you. Still…"

"I understand," he reached out to her, pulling her into a comfortable embrace. He pressed his lips against her hair. "But you have to understand where I'm coming from too. I had no idea what was happening. I remembered bleeding out from a sword wound in the middle of the hallway. Then I'm waking up, completely fine, but you're not breathing."

"I understand," she whispered while tucked into his side.

"No," he argued back softly. "You don't. Because you keep doing this to me Chloe. You keep things from me that I should know, like plans against Kypotians, or about where you after leaving me behind to think you were dead."

She pulled away. "I thought you had forgiven me for that. I thought you said you understood why I did what I did."

Oliver gave a heavy sigh. "I do forgive you. I'll always forgive you. But that doesn't mean I can just forget the pain that I went through. Just like I won't be able to forget about the sight of you lifeless, scared out of my mind until someone had to tell me something about my wife that she never thought to inform me about."

Chloe lowered her head, guilt palpably washing over her.

"I love you Chloe, and I know you love me, but you have to stop keeping things from me. Whether because you're trying to protect me, or because it hurts, or because you don't think it's important enough. From now on, you tell me everything."


End file.
